Santa Cruz County Biographies

LUCAS F. SMITH

Submitted by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
        Lucas F. Smith was born in Wells County, Indiana, and is now (1891) 
forty-six years of age. He worked on a farm and attended a country school until 
fifteen years of age, when he learned the printing business in the Bluffton 
Banner Office. On August 22, 1862, at the age of seventeen years, he enlisted in 
Company G 101st Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and served throughout the war, 
being discharged in July, 1865. He participated in the battles of Perryville, 
Kentucky, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Resaca, 
Kenesaw, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, and Jonesboro, Georgia, and served under 
General Sherman in his "march to the sea," in the capture of Savannah, and the 
march through the Carolinas. He was in the battle of Bentonville, North 
Carolina, and was present at the surrender of Joe Johnson, then marched through 
Virginia to Washington City, and was in the grand review of May, 1855.
        He was the youngest member in his company, and the only one in it who 
never minded a day's service or a battle during his three years' term in the 
army.
After the war he returned to his native town in Indiana and attended the high 
school, declining the appointment as cadet to West Point, which was tendered to 
him. Early in 1866 he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from 
which he graduated in the spring of 1868.
        After visiting the Western and Southwestern States he settled at Bonham, 
in Northern Texas. In 1869 he was elected county attorney of Fannin County. In 
1870 he was appointed by Governor Davis to the office of district attorney of 
the eleventh judicial district, composed of five counties. During his term of 
office he prosecuted the murder case of the State vs. Stephen M. Ballew for the 
murder of James P. Golden, of Quincy, Illinois, which case attracted national 
notoriety, owing to the atrocity of the murder and the fact that Ballew returned 
to Illinois and married the sister of young Golden, wearing as his wedding suit 
the clothes he had taken from his bride's murdered brother. For Mr. Smith's 
services in this case the Legislature of Illinois passed a complimentary 
resolution.
        In speaking of this case the New York World of May, 1872, said: "The 
execution of Stephen M. Ballew, at McKinney, Texas, for the murder of young 
Golden, ends the chapter of one of the most remarkable murder cases ever tried 
in this country. The particulars of the atrocious crime were fully published in 
the World at the time of the arrest of Ballew, in Illinois, in 1871. His 
execution will be hailed with satisfaction by all persons who are familiar with 
the facts of the case. Too much credit cannot be given to the young district 
attorney, L. F. Smith, Esq., who successfully prosecuted the case through all 
the courts of Texas and finally brought the guilty wretch to justice."
        In 1874 he formed a law partnership with Governor Throckmorton and Judge 
Brown, at Sherman, Texas. In the same year he was appointed United States 
district attorney for New Mexico, which office he resigned to raise a company to 
fight the Apache Indians, then murdering and scalping the white settlers without 
regard to sex or age. This company, during three months' service, killed and 
wounded over one hundred Indian warriors and recaptured much stolen property. 
For this service he was offered a commission as captain in the regular army, 
which was declined.
        Soon afterwards he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and formed a law 
partnership with E. W. Crozier, Esq., son of ex-United States Senator Crozier. 
While at St. Louis he was offered and accepted a law partnership with Judge J. 
M. Hurt, of Dallas, Texas, and removed there in January, 1876. He continued in 
business with Judge Hurt until 1878, when the latter was elected to the Supreme 
Court bench of Texas, when he formed a co-partnership with Colonel Crawford, one 
of the best-known lawyers in the Southwest.
        He was married to Della Gouldy, of Louisiana, in 1882, and has four 
children by the marriage. In 1885 he and family visited Southern California and 
became much in love with the State. Having lost a fortune in Texas, in 1888 he 
concluded to "go West," and again came to California with a view of permanently 
settling in the State After visiting different parts of the State he settled in 
Santa Cruz, where he is now engaged in practicing law.
 
HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.-  E. S. Harrison, 
Pacific Press Publ. Co., San Francisco, 1891